iOS 7 design concepts - a very VERY good PDF

[cualexander]

If you watch the video, it makes a lot more sense. They explain how the new interface takes away the distracting grey bars that frame everything in iOS 6 and prior, for instance. More space is utilized in Mail app as an example.

I see some choices they made, but I'm still not a fan of the minimalistic icon look really. I don't want it to look more like Windows 8 and Android, because that actually runs counter to Apple's "Think Different" campaign over the years. Now it's "Okay, maybe those other guys are on to something after all."

 

[xcodeaddict]

If you watch the video, it makes a lot more sense. They explain how the new interface takes away the distracting grey bars that frame everything in iOS 6 and prior, for instance. More space is utilized in Mail app as an example.

I see some choices they made, but I'm still not a fan of the minimalistic icon look really. I don't want it to look more like Windows 8 and Android, because that actually runs counter to Apple's "Think Different" campaign over the years. Now it's "Okay, maybe those other guys are on to something after all."

Watch the video? How DARE you suggest such a taxing exercise! Do you realise what that entails? Browsing *away* from MacRumors for more than an hour, signing up to a website and watching a video with an unbiased mind... HOW DARE YOU! It's far easier to choose the lazy option, and continue moaning with less thorough research material (blogs, other's opinions, not wanting to appear different when most say they "hate" it, etc... )

 

[zbarvian]

Watch the video? How DARE you suggest such a taxing exercise! Do you realise what that entails? Browsing *away* from MacRumors for more than an hour, signing up to a website and watching a video with an unbiased mind... HOW DARE YOU! It's far easier to choose the lazy option, and continue moaning with less thorough research material (blogs, other's opinions, not wanting to appear different when most say they "hate" it, etc... )

Wait a minute, so you're telling me there was deliberation and reasoning behind the design of iOS 7?

Of course there was. There's always a rationale, but it doesn't necessarily excuse the outcome. Our problem isn't one of understanding or perspective. You can't just pardon an action that had seemingly good intentions. In Apple's case, it doesn't appear that simple, but the same fact applies. I'm sure the new direction means well, and I agree with many of its underlying principles, but at the superficial level it's lacking in several key areas.

 

[xcodeaddict]

Wait a minute, so you're telling me there was deliberation and reasoning behind the design of iOS 7?

Of course there was. There's always a rationale, but it doesn't necessarily excuse the outcome. Our problem isn't one of understanding or perspective. You can't just pardon an action that had seemingly good intentions. In Apple's case, it doesn't appear that simple, but the same fact applies. I'm sure the new direction means well, and I agree with many of its underlying principles, but at the superficial level it's lacking in several key areas.

Spend this energy complaining to Apple, by signing up as a Beta tester - why tell me? I love it!

 

[zbarvian]

Spend this energy complaining to Apple, by signing up as a Beta tester - why tell me? I love it!

I am a registered beta tester, and I'm sure Apple's starting to pay attention to the design community.

 

[Night Spring]

Spend this energy complaining to Apple, by signing up as a Beta tester - why tell me? I love it!

Actually, I'm hoping that app developers who hang around MacRumors might see my posts and take my visual difficulties into account when they go adapt their own apps to the new iOS 7 look. It's bad enough that the stock apps are now harder to read because of that super thin font and thin line icons. I'm hoping that not all apps would blindly follow Apple's lead and become illegible to me.

 

[Eso]

I don't understand the point of this thread. I don't think a presentation about Apple's philosophy is going to make this:



...any less ugly to to the people that think it looks ugly.

 

[blackhand1001]

That's opinion, nothing more. I would hardly say "hastily" - that's very dismissive and disrespecting of their HARD work, when you see the incredible detail that has been used, and consideration of every minute pixel and spacing point. To say this is just a skin is totally ignorant of what goes into a complete OS re-design and overhaul, with all respect - this IS NOT just a skin, seriously.

Then explain why the text on the home screen is much harder to read than before. It looks like there was no time spent on actually making things more usable. Why now drop shadows on the text. When dealing with text with a wallpaper behind it drop shadows are the best way to improve readability. Android does it, windows has done it for years, mac os has done it, ios prior to 7 did it. Removing that from the desktop was a very poor decision. Also in some of the apps there is too much white so it all kind of blends together. It should be more obvious where the control bar is in apps. This is made even worse by the fact that in some apps they chose to not put button boarders either. Doing one or the other would have been fine but having neither makes it much less efficient from a visual usability standpoint. Jony Ives may be a good industrial design person (although sometimes he doesn't know when to stop making functional sacrifices for form), but he clearly does not understand good user interface design or he wouldn't have approved of this design. Its a disaster from a UX standpoint.

 

[cualexander]

I don't understand the point of this thread. I don't think a presentation about Apple's philosophy is going to make this:

View attachment 418008

...any less ugly to to the people that think it looks ugly.

Agreed. Newsstand is pretty tacky now. Seems pointless now really. There's no real advantage to Newsstand now over just putting all the magazine apps in a folder. The whole point of Newsstand originally was the skeuomorphism. Without it, it's just a folder with an ugly icon.

The point is that in some apps, like mail and safari, you gain more space on the limited screen size of the iPhone.

 

[jbenkelman]

Thanks for sharing this. I might have overlooked this video, but it was well worth my time.

This is the kind of stuff I like to know. The reason for change and the ideas that drive the design. All in all, the theme seems to be realism > skewmorphic design. Example, the notes app uses a paper like background, but doesn't need the clutter of the notepad and its characteristics.

I have liked iOS 7 from the start so this just solidified my opinion. I can't wait to see how apps change to meet the design demands of the new UI. Less clutter, more screen.

 

[xcodeaddict]

Then explain why the text on the home screen is much harder to read than before. It looks like there was no time spent on actually making things more usable. Why now drop shadows on the text. When dealing with text with a wallpaper behind it drop shadows are the best way to improve readability. Android does it, windows has done it for years, mac os has done it, ios prior to 7 did it. Removing that from the desktop was a very poor decision. Also in some of the apps there is too much white so it all kind of blends together. It should be more obvious where the control bar is in apps. This is made even worse by the fact that in some apps they chose to not put button boarders either. Doing one or the other would have been fine but having neither makes it much less efficient from a visual usability standpoint. Jony Ives may be a good industrial design person (although sometimes he doesn't know when to stop making functional sacrifices for form), but he clearly does not understand good user interface design or he wouldn't have approved of this design. Its a disaster from a UX standpoint.

It really isn't a disaster - maybe it is your perception that is flawed? Makes far more sense to me. How on earth can you say what Jonathan Ive does and doesn't know? And are you presuming he designed THE WHOLE of iOS 7 himself? Do you have a realistic understanding of just how many people are involved in totally re-designing an operating system? You cannot have, else you'd not make such ludicrous, simplistic implications.

Look, go and watch the videos - you'll see more then, otherwise there's no point discussing it.

 

[blackhand1001]

It really isn't a disaster - maybe it is your perception that is flawed? Makes far more sense to me. How on earth can you say what Jonathan Ive does and doesn't know? And are you presuming he designed THE WHOLE of iOS 7 himself? Do you have a realistic understanding of just how many people are involved in totally re-designing an operating system? You cannot have, else you'd not make such ludicrous, simplistic implications.

Look, go and watch the videos - you'll see more then, otherwise there's no point discussing it.

He was the lead engineer on it and is the one with the largest influence of the direction of the project, so yes, if he had a better understanding of UI design we wouldn't have got this UX nightmare. I contribute code to android open source project. I know how software development works.

 

[_Refurbished_]

A PDF file filled with hot, naked women wouldn't sway me from my impressions of the OS.

I could care less what a designer's motives are. Something that is naturally intuitive, does not need to be explained or defended.

 

[xcodeaddict]

He was the lead engineer on it and is the one with the largest influence of the direction of the project, so yes, if he had a better understanding of UI design we wouldn't have got this UX nightmare. I contribute code to android open source project. I know how software development works.

No, you know how Android development works.

"UX nightmare"? Even Ron Amadeo, who works for Android Police, says that Android is an inconsistent mess in many, many areas; I respect his open minded honesty

>> http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/09/18/ux-things-i-hate-about-android/ <<

- he doesn't pretend. An Android developer calling iOS 7 "a UX nightmare" is a strange contradiction on many levels. I'd laugh, but I don't want to appear sarcastic or condescending - I'm not that rude.

Enjoy your night/day.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

Troubled by the new iOS design? Confused by it all? Read the official Apple PDF; you'll gain a LOT of insight - it's very, very beautiful

Sign up to Apple Developer Connection, then goto:

https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/videos/

And find "What’s New in iOS User Interface Design" - and download the PDF.

Why would I sign up if I'm not a developer?? Can you not just post the PDF here?? Saves us all the trouble of signing up for something we won't use. I certainly don't have any Mac or iOS developer skills.

 

[xcodeaddict]

Why would I sign up if I'm not a developer?? Can you not just post the PDF here?? Saves us all the trouble of signing up for something we won't use. I certainly don't have any Mac or iOS developer skills.

"Trouble"? Lol

Nope, not re-posting - don't be lazy!

 

[bigpoppamac31]

"Trouble"? Lol

Nope, not re-posting - don't be lazy!

How am I lazy?? And "re-post"?? You didn't post it to begin with.

 

[xcodeaddict]

How am I lazy?? And "re-post"?? You didn't post it to begin with.

Yes, yes I did. I removed it - I'm not taking any chances with revealing restricted data. With all the typing you've done here, you could have signed up twice!

If you want it, sign up - I am not your slave!

 

[bigpoppamac31]

Yes, yes I did. I removed it - I'm not taking any chances with revealing restricted data. With all the typing you've done here, you could have signed up twice!

If you want it, sign up - I AM NOT YOUR SLAVE.

Again why would I sign up for something I'm never going to use?? I don't even know how do develop apps or websites or anything like that.

 

[xcodeaddict]

Again why would I sign up for something I'm never going to use?? I don't even know how do develop apps or websites or anything like that.

Do you just like demanding? That's not nice.

Look - I've made it easy - IF you want it that much, you'll click: http://tinyurl.com/gofetchitnow

 

[blackhand1001]

No, you know how Android development works.

"UX nightmare"? Even Ron Amadeo, who works for Android Police, says that Android is an inconsistent mess in many, many areas; I respect his open minded honesty

>> http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/09/18/ux-things-i-hate-about-android/ <<

- he doesn't pretend. An Android developer calling iOS 7 "a UX nightmare" is a strange contradiction on many levels. I'd laugh, but I don't want to appear sarcastic or condescending - I'm not that rude.

Enjoy your night/day.

A lot of those issues are being very nitpicky and more than half of them have already been fixed. The homescreen rotation complaint is a setting as is the dialer rotation. The fullscreen popup for uninstalls was also removed long ago.

 

[BvizioN]

Why don't people with reading difficulties consider optician and some pair of glasses instead of moaning here that the fonts look to thin? I am over 40 and I have absolutely no probles reading things on it. One day my vision will get bad and that moment I know what to do instead of complaining that things are not thick enough for me to read.

 

[Night Spring]

Why don't people with reading difficulties consider optician and some pair of glasses instead of moaning here that the fonts look to thin? I am over 40 and I have absolutely no probles reading things on it. One day my vision will get bad and that moment I know what to do instead of complaining that things are not thick enough for me to read.

I do wear glasses -- some vision problems just aren't correctable, even with glasses.

Also, I'm not the only one who is questioning the use of thin fonts.
http://www.subtraction.com/2013/06/11/ios-7-thins-out

 

[mortenandersen]

One must be able to read the words!

Actually, I'm hoping that app developers who hang around MacRumors might see my posts and take my visual difficulties into account when they go adapt their own apps to the new iOS 7 look. It's bad enough that the stock apps are now harder to read because of that super thin font and thin line icons. I'm hoping that not all apps would blindly follow Apple's lead and become illegible to me.

I have chosen a rather banal or straightforward title to my post: But it IS so self-evident and IMPORTANT that I really hope that the designers and developers take it into account. That is, by making the icon lines and the letters themselves SO thin, there is a real danger regarding that many with sub-optimal vision will have problems with reading or seeing what is on the screen. And of course, one should not have to make a close reading or having to make strong attempts to see what is on an iPhone screen - it should and must be the other way around. So ant idea of fancy design in this regard MUST be secondary to function, or to how easy/difficult it is for the user to see what's there on the screen. The text MUST be readable in an easy way, so it must NOT be too thin or disturbed by shadowing effects, or whatever...

Night Spring has a very important point in his post. Of course, persons who have visually reduced capacity take care of that by glasses, or whatever, BUT the main and important point in connection with looking at a screen running iOS7 on iPhone is that when that measure is taken by the person, it should or rather MUST be easy to see what is written or drawn on the screen, that the lines are NOT too thin - and that the contrast between the text and background is good enough. This goes without saying! And there IS a real danger that some designers can develop a biased view on this matter, unfortunately.

Please take this into account when the final touch is being done on iOS 7!

 

[jbenkelman]

Why don't people with reading difficulties consider optician and some pair of glasses instead of moaning here that the fonts look to thin? I am over 40 and I have absolutely no probles reading things on it. One day my vision will get bad and that moment I know what to do instead of complaining that things are not thick enough for me to read.

I think the real problem is that these people have yet to realize that there is a BOLD option, as well as a font size adjustment to MUCH larger in the settings now. They are complaining about something without finding out first if it is something they can fix.

----------

I have chosen a rather banal or straightforward title to my post: But it IS so self-evident and IMPORTANT that I really hope that the designers and developers takes it into account. That is, by making the icon lines and the letters themselves SO thin, there is a real danger regarding that many with sub-optimal vision will have problems with reading or seeing what is on the screen. And of course, one should not have to make a close reading or having to make strong attempts to see what is on an iPhone screen - it should and must be the other way around. So ant idea of fancy design in this regard MUST be secondary to function, or to how easy/difficult it is for the user to see what's there on the screen. The text MUST be readable in an easy way, so it must NOT be too thin or disturbed by shadowing effects, or whatever...

Please take this into account when the final touch is being done on iOS 7!

There is an option in the settings of iOS 7 that allows you to BOLD the phones text. Problem solved.